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Graham Johnson and Steuart Bedford remember Philip Langridge

8 April 2010

Philip Langridge as Aschenbach in the Opera Australia 2005 production of 'Death in Venice'(Photo: Branco Gaica)

Philip Langridge as Marquis in Berg's 'Lulu' at the Royal Opera(Photo: Clive Barda)

Following the death last month of Philip Langridge, pianist Graham Johnson and conductor Steuart Bedford have spoken to Opera Now about their memories of working with Langridge, his legacy and the qualities that made him one of the finest English tenors of his generation.

“Philip was an unpublicised national treasure”, says Johnson, “and in terms of what he did to serve British music, I can’t think of any British artist who deserved a knighthood more.”

Well known for his interpretations of Janáček and modern British operas, Langridge particularly excelled in the works of Britten, successfully reinventing roles that had been written originally for Peter Pears.

“Along with Anthony Rolfe Johnson, he was one of the generation of tenors who inherited the mantle of Peter Pears,” explains Johnson. “When I heard Philip in the flesh do Death in Venice at English National Opera, I told him that he was the greatest Aschenbach I had ever heard – which is remarkable considering that I helped Peter Pears learn this role and was his friend and admirer for many years.”

Bedford, who recorded Britten’s The Turn of the Screw with Langridge for Collins, was similarly impressed: “You can’t really go about Britten’s work by copying Peter Pears. You have to do it your own way, and Philip was one of the people who managed to do that successfully. His interpretations were always entirely valid and convincing.”

According to Johnson, the fact that Langridge had trained initially as a violinist meant that he approached singing with an unusually strong grasp of musical form and structure:

“Somebody who understands sonata form after having performed violin sonatas will think of music in larger structures, and will never interpret an operatic role as a series of individual phrases and sections. I know that one of the things Claudio Abbado loved about working with Philip was this total musicianship. Abbado felt a musical kinship with Philip.”

Langridge turned 70 last December but his future schedule showed no signs of plans to slow down. According to Johnson, “the fact that Philip died ‘in harness’ – with several years of future engagements already in the diary – is evidence of the commitment that led him to master so many roles in such different operas.”

Searching for a suitable epitaph for Langridge, Johnson cites ‘Starry Vere – god bless you’ from the libretto of Britten’s Billy Budd: “This phrase, sung by the sailors on deck as they turn to salute their captain, captures Philip’s star-like quality and his important position as a role model for the younger generation.”

The full transcript of this interview with Graham Johnson will appear in the May/June issue of Opera Now.

News round-up - 3 April 2010

American conductor, Leonard Slatkin, has withdrawn from conducting any further performances of La traviata at New York’s Metropolitan Opera following negative reviews of this week’s opening night performance. He was slammed for openly admitting via his personal web site that he “had never conducted" the opera before but “concluded that since everyone else in the house knew it, I would learn a great deal from the masters.” Slatkin will be replaced by Marco Armiliato on 3 April, house cover conductor, Steven White, on 7 April and Yves Abel, principal guest of Berlin’s Deutsche Oper, on 13, 17, 21 and 24 April.

Publishing heiress and philanthropist, Ann Ziff, has given USD 30 million to New York’s Metropolitan Opera – the largest single donation ever received by the house. The Met’s general manager, Peter Gelb, told The New York Times that “it’s a very timely and important gift from a longtime supporter of the Met.” Ms Ziff has served on The Met’s board since 1994 and also provided funding for Robert Lepage’s new production of Wagner’s Ring cycle, which begins in September.

Tenor still recovering after removal of a cancerous polyp from his colon

Plácido Domingo has returned to Los Angeles, where he will resume his duties as General Director of LA Opera following cancer surgery last month. The 69-year-old tenor also confirmed in a statement that he has already begun singing privately and plans to begin rehearsals shortly for his appearance as Simon Boccanegra at La Scala on 16 April.

Gerard Mortier has promised ‘innovative’ programming for his first season as the new director of Madrid’s opera house. The 66-year-old Belgian, who will head the Teatro Real until 2016, has scheduled operas by Britten, Szymanowski, Messiaen and Kurt Weill, including new productions by Peter Sellars, Krzystof Warlikowski and Bob Wilson. Plácido Domingo will also make a special appearance on 21 January 2011 to celebrate his 70th birthday.

The first new opera created under The Metropolitan Opera-Lincoln Center joint commissioning programme is to be staged in June 2011 at London’s Coliseum before moving to New York for The Met’s 2012-13 Season. Based on the story of a real Internet murder, the opera will be scored by 28-year-old American composer, Nico Muhly, with a libretto by established playwright, Craig Lucas. The project will be The Met’s fourth co-production with English National Opera.

Former Bayreuth director Wolfgang Wagner dies aged 90

Wolfgang Wagner, the grandson of composer Richard Wagner, has died in Germany aged 90.

Appointed as a co-director of Bayreuther Festspiele in 1951 alongside his brother, Wieland Wagner, Wolfgang became the festival’s sole director after Wieland’s death in 1966.

Although generally considered to be a far less inspired producer than Wieland, Wolfgang was widely recognised for his skills as a business manager, ruthless in turning Bayreuth to his personal advantage, getting the festival funded and making it more famous than ever.

He held the reigns of power for four decades, but stepped down in 2008 to be succeeded by his two daughters, Katharina Wagner and Eva Wagner-Pasquier.

Wolfgang's desire to safeguard his own legacy when making these appointments fed into a wider agenda to perpetuate the Wagners' control of Bayreuth. According to Opera Now correspondent, Tom Sutcliffe, this could prevent the future development of the festival:

“The truth about the Wagners today is that there is no reason for them to have any hold on Bayreuth at all. Across the whole industrial and commercial world good management skills are demonstrably non-hereditary. Fairly soon Bayreuth should be taken away from Wagner’s bloodline and run by talented Intendants who can do something for the whole world of opera rather than behaving as if Wagner still needed Bayreuth.”

According to Sutcliffe, Katharina Wagner “is an even worse director than Wolfgang was himself, simply following the current intellectually decorative and predictable fashions of interpretation – and not showing any real special skills at the hands-on direction of performers and chorus. She is at best only the product of her father’s determination to produce a suitable Wagner heir in his own mould.”

Katharina’s directorial debut at the festival in 2007 – with a production of Die Meistersinger von Nuernberg – was booed loudly by the audience and denounced by some critics, but met by others as an indicator of positive change and renewal.

“No doubt,” says Sutcliffe, “she and Eva will be able to bring in some new talents and try out new techniques for exploiting what Bayreuth has to offer by making it seem more accessible. However, the Wagners are not a royal or aristocratic family. With the death of Wolfgang, in reality their time has been and gone.”

News round-up - 29 March 2010

29 March 2010

Rolando Villazón(Photo: Felix Broede / Deutsche Grammophon)

Dominique Meyer

ROLANDO VILLAZON TRIUMPHS IN STAGE RETURN

Mexican tenor receives ovations at Vienna Staatsoper

Rolando Villazón has given his first stage performance since undergoing surgery last year to remove a cyst on his vocal folds. Performing his signature role of Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore at Vienna Staatsoper, the 38-year-old Mexican tenor drew an ovation lasting one minute when he appeared on stage, six minutes of cheering after delivering the aria ‘Una furtiva lagrima’ and curtain-calls lasting 25 minutes at the end of the evening.

Dominique Meyer, currently the general director of the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, has been selected by the Austrian government to replace Ioan Holender as general director of Vienna Staatsoper. Romanian-born Holender has held the post since 1993. Among Meyer’s planned reforms will be the reintroduction of Baroque operas, banished under Holender, and an increase in the number of new productions each year from four to six. Meyer’s tenure will begin in September, coinciding with Franz Welser-Möst’s first season as the company’s new general music director.

Scottish Opera has launched ‘Baby O’, a project aimed at parents and their infants aged 6 to 18 months. Featuring company singers making “baby-friendly noises”, the project will offer participants an interactive sensory experience that connects sounds with movement, colour and textures. ‘Baby O’ events are planned in three cities across Scotland as part of this year’s European Opera days.

Five singers from Washington National Opera’s Domingo-Cafritz Young Artists Program took part in an unusual marketing initiative last week. Dressed as members of staff at a Baltimore supermarket, the singers burst into a performance of ‘Libiamo ne'lieti calici’ from Verdi’s La traviata, surprising shoppers who stood to watch and recorded the event on their mobile phones.

Michael Berkeley commissioned to write 'Atonement'

British composer Michael Berkeley has been approached to write an opera based on Ian McEwan’s best-selling novel, Atonement.

The initial approach was made by a German opera house, and discussions are now underway for a three-way co-production with companies in the UK and US.

Berkeley has confirmed that the new opera, tentatively scheduled for premiere in 2013, will be written and sung in English.

Berkeley is married to McEwan’s literary agent and he and the author have been friends for many years. Their small-scale opera, For You, with music by Berkeley and an original libretto by McEwan, was premiered at London’s Linbury Studio in 2009.

Despite the success of this venture, McEwan has decided not to write the libretto for Atonement, instead passing this task to poet and critic Craig Raine.

Atonement was published in 2001 and has since sold more than 2 million copies in the UK alone. It became an Oscar-winning film in 2007 starring James McAvoy and Keira Knightley, based on a screenplay by Christopher Hampton.

The story is told by a fictional author attempting to reconcile her past actions by re-writing history. At the core of the narrative are two young lovers, separated by class differences, war and a lie rooted in the narrator’s own childhood jealousy.

Speaking to The Times last week, Berkeley explained how an operatic adaptation will offer unique possibilities for exploring the protagonists’ inner lives:

“The love affair…is at a distance, in letters and the mind. That’s something that music can do that no other art form can. You can have [the lovers] on stage together singing a duet while he’s in France (fighting in the Second World War) and she’s in a hospital in England (working as a nurse). You can go into the minds of these two people so that they can be simultaneously articulating their thoughts to each other.”

Berkeley has also confirmed that the librettist, Craig Raine, has expressed interest in looking at McEwan’s story from a different angle – from the perspective of the narrator’s childhood self, whose role is pivotal yet dealt with obliquely in the novel.